Monument museum likely to be inaugurated soon

ISLAMABAD Pakistan Monument Museum (PMM), a much-delayed project of rupees 120 million, is finally ready for inauguration, claims the Lok Virsa management. This project was handed over to Lok Virsa in May 2009 for its early completion after the Government had revoked Uxi Muftis contract on corruption charges. But, no one has seen investigation in progress on the claimed corruption charges since October 2008 when Uxi Mufti was kicked out of the project. Several deadlines were set up for the completion of the Museum since May 2009 but the Lok Virsa management failed to comply with any of them. They had only one statement to release times again that Uxi Mufti had left us in a big mess, whatever he put up in the Museum was sub-standard. Redoing of the stuff would take time. We will astonish you with our new work. Finally, it is the time to be astonished by the work of the Lok Virsa team. But still we need the museum to be inaugurated officially to see the wonder that have consumed the saved money of 30 million as Uxi Mufti claims. In June this year while talking to TheNation, the Lok Virsa Executive Director Khalid Javaid claimed that the Lok Virsa would hand over the museum to the Federal Ministry of Cultural in the first week of July 2010. He said, It was expected that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani would inaugurate the National Monument Museum in the month of July or on 14 August this year. Unfortunately, we have seen Lok Virsa failure even on the final deadline they set up for themselves. The Museum that is being established in front of the Pakistan Monument here at Shakarparian had to be completed in 2007 by its project director Uxi Mufti who was directly associated with the Federal Ministry of Culture, said the Lok Virsa Executive Director while talking to this scribe. After talking over the project, Khalid Javaid said, the Lok Virsa management and the Federal Ministry of Culture constituted a committee to review the PMM progress and found that the 'storyboard of the museum was missing many key elements of our history. The sculptures of heroes, which were made to put on display in the Museum was not in proportion, and unlike to face features and cuts of our national heroes. That is why the review committee decided to redo the sculptures and revise the entire layout plan after dismantling the previously done work in the museum, said Khalid Javaid. On the other hand, when TheNation contacted the PMM former Project Director Uxi Mufti, he said, The Pakistan Monument Museum was almost completed when I was retired in October 2008, whereas I had planned its inauguration on 25 December the same year after some finishing touches and last reviews of the objects installed inside the museum. I had saved rupees 30 million in the project and the money was kept in the PMM bank account that was handed over to the ministry after my retirement, said Mufti adding, The redoing of the 'storyboard of the museum and the sculptures seems to be a conspiracy to eat up the taxpayers money. The Pakistan Monument Museum project was launched in 2005 by the former government with the prime objective to explain Pakistan in historical perspective to the visitors including young and the foreigners, and to pay homage to the sacrifices of the martyrs and ghazis of Pakistan movement.